I am a dealer, specialising in Russian Area and East European Philately. You can contact me at
trevor@trevorpateman.co.uk.
You can also find material from my specialised stock in the regular online auction at www.filateliapalvelu.com
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Monday, 5 October 2015

When Is a Stamp Issue a Stamp Issue?

Today I was reading articles in a well – known philatelic
journal, two of which struck me as largely wish-fulfilment. Of course, wish
fulfilment is like Sin – you can denounce it but it never goes away.

We all like to discover something new or own
something unique. The desire can be so strong that we abandon our critical
faculties.

What is a stamp issue? Here are three stories:

1.Some
local postmaster discovers he is just about to run out of 1 cent stamps. He has
put in an order for more but has been told they won’t be delivered for ten
days. He’s got a problem. Then he has an idea: he tells his counter clerks to
cut two cent stamps in half and use them as one cent stamps until the new
supplies arrive. Problem solved! From an accounting point of view, it’s
perfect, since the total value of stamps used up continues to match the total
amount of postage paid in. But we also have a Postmaster
Provisional. We have an even better Postmaster Provisional if a regional
post office authority informs all its dependent postmasters that since its
supplies of 1 cent stamps have run out and it cannot fulfil orders for them,
for the time being postmasters may bisect two cent stamps.

2.The
manager of a local firm comes to the post office wanting to mail out advertising
cards locally. As it happens, the tariff for this has just been reduced from 2
cents to 1 cent. The manager explains that they had a lot of 2 cent stamps in
stock which are no longer needed, so they have cut them in half. That’s all
right, isn’t it? The counter clerk consults the postmaster who says it’s a bit
irregular and why didn’t they ask first, but since they’ve done it, well all
right. So the advertising cards get accepted and postmarked. This isn’t a Postmaster
Provisional. It’s just someone taking a chance and getting away with it.

3.A
local philatelist comes in – they all know him at the post office – and he’s
franked a letter in his usual cheerful way and wants to send it, Registered, to
a friend. Only this time, he’s cut some of the stamps in half. They still add
up to the correct amount, he points out, and the counter clerk smiles
indulgently and registers and cancels the letter. After all, the philatelist
always brings in a big box of chocolates at Christmas.

Some central governments are stronger than others,
some postal authorities fiercer than others. At some times and places, the
manager in story 2 and the philatelist in story 3 would not get away with it. And the postmaster in story 1 trying to do his best might find himself in
trouble.

But there are plenty of times and places when you
can get away with an awful lot and especially in times of war and revolution.

So if you take somewhere like Ukraine in 1918 – 19 or
again in the 1990s, then stamp “issues” can originate on both sides of the post office counter.

Long before postal
authorities introduced “personalised” stamps, people – philatelists – found ways
to personalise stamps. No fraud need be intended or need result.

I want to
celebrate the Revolution so what do I do? Make a little handstamp with my
Symbol of the Revolution and apply it to my personal stock of stamps I bought
from the post office last week. Then I stick them on letters addressed to all
my philatelic friends (hoping they will return the favour), go off to the post
office and cause a bit of amusement. And if I don’t cause amusement, well a box
of chocolates will soon change the mood.

Of course, I may get more serious about this – then the
next step is to stick my stamps on envelopes addressed to Yvert et Tellier or
Gebrüder Senf.

Or I may try to do a deal with my local postmaster to provide him with stamps he needs but which aren't arriving from the government department which is supposed to keep him stocked (Here we have the beginnings of a story 4)

Stories like 2 and 3 are an interesting part of social history or the history of
philately. But unlike story 1 and some fleshed-out versions of story 4, they don't have anything to do with what we normally think of as
stamp issues.

Added in response to Dr Ivo's Comment below:Here's a Story 4:The local postmaster and the local philatelist know each other well. The postmaster is complaining that he is being sent imperforate stamps which are a damn nuisance at the post office counter - maybe they are 1917 Imperial Arms, Ukraine General Issue or Denikins. The philatelist offers to help: give me a batch and I know where I can get them perforated for you. All I ask is that I get to buy some to stick on letters to my philatelic friends. The deal is done. The postmaster (and the counter clerks) are pleased, the philatelist is pleased, and we have a Postmaster Provisional Perforation. That's a bit different to a perforation made in the mail room of a big company (say Gerhard and Hey in Petrograd) and applied only to their own stocks of stamps

1 comment:

Story 4 is of particular interest to me because it is almost certainly the story behind some Siberian stamp issues, particularly the "PZK" issue of 1922. All those highly uncommon Arms values that suddenly are available by overprinting, a few sheets for each value? I smell a stamp dealer, specifically Pappadopulo.However, at the end of the say the result was a set of stamps that were all valid for postage, and for many we can actually see them used for postage, and not just on Pappadopulo covers. So while I'm not happy with the story behind the stamps, the stamps themselves are...okay I guess.